There are many parallels between Allen Community College’s men’s and women’s soccer teams this fall.
Both made the successful transition to NJCAA’s Division II level, with both steamrolling their ways to Region VI championships.
Both also saw their seasons end just short of their ultimate goal in competing for the national championship.
Allen’s women were a part of the national tournament, but dropped a 2-1 heartbreaker to Mississippi’s Holmes Community College in a preliminary round. The defeat, ACC’s singular of the season, prevented the Red Devils from advancing to the national quarterfinals. Holmes, meanwhile, made it all the way to the national championship match before falling, 2-1, to Phoenix Community College.
“If that was no. 2 in the nation, it shows we weren’t that far off,” Red Devil women head coach Jeremy McGinnis said.
Allen’s men, meanwhile, lost a bitter and controversial 2-1 defeat to Southeastern (Iowa) Community College in a midwest sectional championship game, denying the Red Devils a bid to the national tournament. Allen led, 1-0, until Southeastern scored twice in the game’s final 90 seconds for the stunning victory.
Adding salt to the wound, Southeastern went on to win the national championship.
The loss is part of what is fueling the Red Devils, head coach Doug Desmarteau said.
“Jordan (Mase) has watched the video probably 20 times,” Desmarteau said. “I’ve watched it a bunch, trying to figure out what happened.”
THEREIN lies the other similarity for both squads.
While each has replaced a pair of significant players from their starting lineups — each will need to find a new goalkeeper — both Red Devil teams return largely intact in 2021.
And after “last year’s” season was pushed back to the spring semester because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the schedule has reverted to normal this time around, with Allen’s soccer season starting Friday and Sunday with matches in Minnesota.
“We tried to squeeze in as much summertime as we could,” McGinnis said.
THE RED DEVIL women bid adieu to a pair of All-Americans in leading scorer Dot Usher and goalkeeper Phoenix Michaelis.
Nevertheless, McGinnis is highly optimistic Allen will pick up where it left off.
